And So It Begins: The Word Wood's Creepy Month of Horror

You might have noticed or had an inkling after our banner changed starting on the first, but now that we've finished our annual celebrations, The Word Wood is going to kick things up a notch for the month of October.

In honor of all things Halloween, we four ladies decided that this entire month should be devoted to all things horror. Plus, to make things even more interesting, all of the flash fiction posted this month will be featuring a whole new set of guest writers who specialize in the genre. To make things extra spooky. XD

But just to assure you that the rest of us original Word-Wooders haven't gone completely MIA, all of us wanted to dish, and share which are our all time favorite monsters. My favorite is a classic, although you've probably heard of them through different contemporary names. But allow me to introduce to you to one of the oldest legendary creatures hailing from its original Slavic roots:

The Vulkodlac

Origins

From Carol Rose's Giants, Monsters, and Dragons:

"This is the name for a transforming Werewolf in the traditions and
folklore of the Slavic people of eastern Europe. In the traditions of
this region the Werewolf and vampire were interrelated in that when a
Werewolf was killed it would transform from time to time during its
predations. This particularly terrifying monster was known as the
Vulkodlac, which may be translated as 'Wolf's Hair.' " (p. 386)

Key Vulkodlac Features:

Werewolves and vampires are equal halves of the same tribe.

Two-phase life cycle: first as a wolf, then as a vamp.

Now I know that those of you out there who follow my writing blog have heard me talk about this before, but it really is a nifty creature. It's just really sort of interesting for both werewolf and vampire origins to trail back from the same creature, especially considering how often vampires and werewolves are pitted against each other in opposing forces in urban fantasy. Despite the two group's initial joint history, I've yet to read an UF that features the two in the same community. It very much gives off a sense of a house divided, doesn't it?

What's your favorite half of this two-sided cycle? The werewolf? Or the vampire? Tell me your thoughts. I'm really curious. Does this arrangement appeal to you at all?

About the Word Wood

A place to house our haphazard collection of flash fiction.

Every month, just for laughs, we ladies play a story game. We each pick a verb and a noun then throw them into a hat and pick a random combination. We roll a die and the winner gets to choose the genre. With everything settled we then attempt to write a piece of flash fiction, no more than 500 words, incorporating the bizarre wordage in the selected genre style.

If you enjoy reading these half as much as we enjoyed writing them then all is right with the universe.

February's Wordage

Noun: napeVerb: grunt

What's Flash Fiction?

Flash fiction is a style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity. There is no widely accepted definition of the length of the category. Some self-described markets for flash fiction impose caps as low as three hundred words, while others consider stories as long as a thousand words to be flash fiction. - Wikipedia